Prep wrestling: Female wrestler has made quite an impact on Drake program

Maybe it was destiny, maybe it was chance, but life guided Drake High wrestler Makenna Garcia to where she needed to be — co-captain of a young, fledging Pirates team.

"Makenna just jumped right into this role of being a leader," Drake coach Johann Gerlach said. "It was something I was hoping would take place with one of the kids (and) she jumped right into it. I think she's done a fantastic job of leading the guys."

With such a small program, having a strong leader within the team resonates that much more, he said.

"We have a couple of young kids and I know they're going to take some of the things that she's showed them. They're going to take something from her and it's going to stay with them for as long as they wrestle," Gerlach said. "When you can leave a foundation for a couple of other teammates, that's invaluable."

"To me, she's like a teacher," teammate Linsy Herrera said, who joined the team after Garcia recruited her from their mutual PE class. "She's really patient with everyone. She's an amazing teammate to have."

Garcia, a self-described "tomboy," became interested in wrestling while she was living in Washington state.

"Swimming, water polo, soccer are so big up there," she said. "You really have to start when you're young, get your foot in the door, to be competitive."

One day in eighth grade, the principal made an announcement during lunch that it was the last day to join the wrestling team.

"I could so do that. I could so do that," she remembered saying. "I don't know who was more shocked — the coaches, to see me, or my friends when I walked in the door. Just the challenge of it, is what I went for."

Garcia, who has attended five high schools, took a break from the sport and picked it up again in her junior year.

"From the end of your first year on, it's 70/30 mental (versus everything else)," Gerlach said. "The actions and moves become memory, it's almost autopilot — and then that's when the sport really takes shape. Do you have the mental acuity to stay in shape? Do you have the discipline to keep doing that instead of running around and goofing off? She's done an incredible job of that."

Some of that discipline originates at home.

"My whole family is a music family," Garcia said, adding that she played the flute for 13 years, as do her mom and older sister, while her dad plays the trumpet. "When I came home and I was like, I want to wrestle, they were like 'Okay?'"

After the initial surprise, the combination made sense.

"I had a lot of guy friends, I loved building forts," she said. "I loved hanging tough. I wasn't afraid of wrestling with a guy or getting beaten up because I have a lot of guy friends. We do that any ways. It wasn't too foreign."

Having the foundation has helped her to a 13-10 record and a No. 4 seed at this weekend's girls North Coast Section championships. Still, she's had to make a lot of progress over the past few weeks to get there.

"I think my favorite part of this year has been watching her challenge herself mentally," Gerlach said. "She's been overcoming some of these obstacles of losing. Losses she didn't expect, prepare for"... she has taken those and learned it isn't the end all, be all."

"Being a girl in a male-dominated sport, it's very intimidating," Garcia said, demonstrating her maturity and progress by adding, "You win some, you lose some."

Gerlach said it's "bittersweet" that they've reached the end of her high school career.

"No matter where it ends up, at the end of this I'm going to be so proud of her," he said. "She's definitely left an impact on my program."

Honor roll

 Marin Catholic's Eric Wardenburg won MC's own Dawn 2 Dusk Championship on Saturday at 147 pounds. Teammate Anthony Kosinski won the heavyweight title for the tournament.

 Tam, Terra Linda, Drake, and Marin Catholic will head to the East Bay for the Mission San Jose tournament in Fremont. As of last Friday, 69 teams had registered for the two-day event starting Friday.